INDIANAPOLIS — After more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers with the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University’s schools of medicine are taking a look at the prevalence of lingering COVID-19 symptoms, or post-COVID conditions, in Americans.
"I think since early on in the COVID pandemic, people began to wonder what the impact of this new virus would be," Dr. Shaun Grannis, Regenstrief Vice President for Data and Analytics and professor of family medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said. "We're beginning to get some indication from some early studies regarding long COVID, but it just hasn't been that long since the pandemic has struck. So I think [we'll be] able to provide evidence based information regarding what are the risk factors for developing long COVID? What does long COVID look like?"
Grannis also hopes the study helps nail down definitions for what long COVID, or post-COVID conditions, are.
The five year, nearly $9 million CDC grant for the research study will look at population level trends based on electronic health record data sets. A second part of the study will follow and monitor patients of all ages to track the disease course of recent infections. Researchers hope to gain an accurate reading of the burden and outcomes of individuals who have survived the virus.
"I think there's going to be some very important scientific evidence to come out of this work, to better understand in a more rigorous, longer term process exactly what the risk factors for long COVID are [and] what the actual impact is," Grannis said. "I think it's important for physicians and patients to know what their risks are and what we can best do to treat those particular risks."
Researchers are currently developing protocols and working on how they will recruit people. Grannis hopes there are some results from the study that are able to be shared by next year.
More information on the study is available here.
